Aussie Wines!

A good way to find new vineyards is to go into wine territory and ask around.  When I was in the Barossa, a number of people mentioned Murray Street Vineyards but I just ran out of time to check them out.

When I made it back to Sydney, I got in touch with their distributor (Haviland Wines) and was fortunate enough to receive some samples to try, including the 2006 “The Barossa” Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre and Cinsault blend from 06 and the 2006 Shiraz.

Made by Andrew Seppelt (a rather famous name in the Barossa), I can see why the wines are getting a bit of acclaim and they’re certainly quite drinkable.

The Barossa Blend has a decent rich colour, a hint of mint on the nose hiding behind some ripe berry flavours and then a surprising whack of sweetness on the end of it.  It’s certainly a decent wine and will appeal to those who like wines with that bit of sweetness to them, but generally those people don’t really like to spend too much on wine and this wine is $30ish, so I’m not quite convinced that they’re worth that.  Having said that, if you’re trying to impress someone, shell out $30 on a wine that she’ll like and you’ll look good doing it. 88 points

The Shiraz is a bit more interesting, almost elegant for a Barossa.  This elegance is a direct result of the vintage conditions, where they had a series of heatwaves in January and February (the ripening season) which isn’t entirely great for wines and meant slow ripening and some vegetative growth (hence the mint in the Blend). However, they have a great structure to them (the ones I’ve tasted recently anyway) and will cellar well. With this one, it’s certainly very drinkable and a great all-round wine, but it seems to lack a distinctive Barossa element to it. Look, you can belt it down really easily and enjoy it. And, quite amazingly, it holds the 15% alcohol level really really well - you wouldn’t even know it’s that high from the taste. 89 points

They’re decent wines from a difficult vintage and the Shiraz has won some nice awards, including a Blue Gold (judged with food) at the Sydney International Wine Competition, but I’d love to see them from a great vintage to see what they can really come out with.

One of my favourite wineries sent me some samples the other day.  They’re under the label Cigale, which is French for cicada.  I haven’t yet worked out why they went with that name, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do.

$20 seems to be the entry-level price point for Barossa Shiraz, and that’s the case with this wine.  Compared to Shiraz from regions other than the Barossa, this punches above its weight in terms of value for money.  Compared to other $20 Shiraz from the Barossa, this is still quite a good wine, relatively elegant without being jammy.  Search a bit and you can find better, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this wine.

Deep purple in colour, indicating a youthful wine.  I find the nose relatively closed and I think decanting would help bring out some of the more subtle elements of the wine.  It’s very easy to drink and quite well balanced, with the 14.6% alcohol not causing any noticeable heat.  A signature perfumed nose from this producer, darker berries, plums and spicy raspberry, it’s a nice drop for the money and a very good Barossa Shiraz for the money.  Look hard and you can find better, but you won’t kick this one out of bed.

90 points

I spent a day with Kym Teusner and the team (special thanks to Dave Brookes) a couple of weekends ago. It was a miserable old day but jesus we tasted some good wines, including some barrel samples of some upcoming bits and pieces too. I’ll write more about those hopefully sometime this week.

This wine is their entry-level red, coming from the Riebke family vineyards up in the northern part of the Barossa. It used to be called the Ebenezer Road Shiraz, but Constellation Wines (used to be Hardy’s) have started to kick up a stink since Barossa Valley Estate uses that term on their labels and is trying to claim a copyright… which, of course, is just a whole bunch of high-priced lawyers trying to justify their high-pricedness. To be diplomatic, Kym has changed the label to read Northern Barossa Shiraz instead.

For a $20ish Shiraz, this one is one of the best around. Great fruit from a family-owned vineyard results in a rich plummy red, with an incredibly dark purple colour. Sure, you can drink it now if you like, but you might like to buy up and give it a bit of time to open up. 92 points.

Kym puts the quality of this wine down to the quality of the fruit, which is a pretty simple formula, but many winemakers go on about minimalist winemaking techniques and letting the fruit do the talking, which is exactly what he does here. A great buy.

I picked this baby up from one of my regular bottle shops for $25, just after a nice juicy Shiraz to go with steak.  It’s certainly done the job!

The Sorrento label is made by Serafino wines, by Serafino (Steve) Maglieri.  Does the name sound familiar?  You may have heard of Maglieri wines, a label that he made famous and then sold to one of the big boys.

Steve is famous for his Cabernet Sauvignon, having won a few very prestigious awards for it (check out serafinowines.com.au for all that info).  He started pruning vines and ended up as one of Australia’s more talented winemakers.  As Paul Kelly would sing: from little things, big things grow.

Steve makes four ranges at this winery, the top-shelf Serafino Sharktooth range, the standard Serafino range, the Sorrento labels and the Goose Island wines.  There isn’t a lot of detail about the different labels on the website, so I can’t tell you all that much.  What I DO know is that, for the price, this Sorrento label is looking pretty nice.

You’ll taste typical dark chocolate McLaren flavours, loads of cloves and spices and rich flavours of plum, with just a little heat from 14.5% alcohol and juicy berry flavours in the background, including ripe cherries.  It’s a fruit driven wine (that is, there’s little evidence of oak or other winemaker intervention), without being overly fruity.  It’s certainly gulpable and you shouldn’t hesitate to put this in a glass. 91 points.

Orlando is one of Australia’s biggest companies, responsible for the famous Jacob’s Creek label, as well as Steingarten Riesling, Jacaranda Ridge, St Hugo, Trilogy and the Lawson’s Shiraz. Recently, they’ve downplayed the Orlando name and instead focussed on Jacob’s Creek, so instead of seeing Orlando Steingarten Riesling, you see Jacob’s Creek Steingarten Riesling. The aim of all of this is to entice international buyers, particularly in big markets like the UK, to drink the more expensive wines considering that they know the cheaper Jacob’s Creek brand. Personally, I think it’s a shame because, in my mind anyway, they’re reducing the value of the famous brands, but then I don’t get paid the big bucks to make those decisions.

Anyway, on to this wine. Lawson’s is from a region in South Australia called Padthaway, on the Limestone Coast, south of Adelaide. It is a recognised wine region, but always seems to be in the shadow of the neighbouring Coonawarra region. Named after an early patron of Padthaway, Robert Lawson, this wine comes from relatively youngish Shiraz vines (33 years old). Don’t get me wrong, they’re not incredibly young vines by any standard, but compared to some of the old gnarly bastards in other areas that go back over a century or so, they’re not old. The grapes for this wine are only taken from one vineyard.

Now, this wine is 11 years old at the time of opening, but it’s still got a long way to go in the cellar. It’s incredibly deep in colour and really quite rich on the nose and palate. Very intense bugger, this one. On the nose, you’ll notice that this wine has seen loads of oak with spicy plum and vanilla odours, loads of chocolate and coffee odours and a dash of mint for good measure. On the palate, it’s pretty much exactly the same with drying tannins that still need time to settle down. Add in a bit of cigar box/cedary characters and you’ve got the idea. This isn’t a wine, it’s an experience! Hell of a drop that still needs time in the cellar to let the tannins die down a little more. 96 points.

Over the years, Lawson’s has won 23 trophies and 134 gold medals, according to their website… I can see why.

I met Marco Cirillo a couple of years ago over dinner at a place called Vintner’s Bar and Grill in the Barossa. I hadn’t heard a thing about his wines because at the time, he was quite a new producer and his wine hadn’t been on the market for more than a year.

But he’d been involved in the wine industry all of his life. His family tends some of the oldest Grenache vines in the world (see the picture below). These vines were planted in the 1850’s, making them over 150 years old. There might be a vineyard or two in Spain with older vines, but no one’s proven anything anyway so let’s just claim the record here, shall we?

Of course, vines like this get a lot of attention. Marco had been selling his grapes to the team at Torbreck, who have been doing some pretty amazing things with wine too. But after awhile, he decided to work on the vines himself, literally in his family’s back shed. And he’s had some fantastic results.

Marco Cirillo's 150+ year old Grenache vines

Now, as vines get older, they produce much less fruit, but the stuff that comes out is usually pretty incredible, with much more flavour than younger vines. Plus the vines have lived through 150 or so previous vintages so they’ve seen it all and can stand up to some of the harshest vintage conditions around.

Now, Grenache is usually produced in one of two ways. Some have bubblegum type characters and can be relatively sweet. Others are more earthy, with nice ripe fruit flavours without being super sweet. This is definitely the latter.

When you pour it into your glass, the wine doesn’t look as dark and brooding as many intense Barossa Grenaches. This is because the vines are planted on sandy soil, which from memory is only about 3 metres deep - you tend to get less colour from vines on these types of soils. So you’re left thinking that this isn’t going to be a massive wine.

So stick your nose into the glass… it’s rich and intense, lots of lovely brooding dry fruits on the nose. Amazingly for a 16.5% wine, it doesn’t smell or taste hot, although at least one prominent wine critic will tell you that the alcohol could be balanced better. I disagree and I am usually quite susceptible to unbalanced alcohol levels (eg the Evans and Tate Reserve Shiraz, 2004). I also think that perhaps this wine goes best with food, particularly things like a nice lasagna, or anything Mediterranean really. If you’re worried about the alcohol, then put it with food. Also, at 16.5%, it’ll help you on the road to a successful date… particularly since every person I’ve shared a bottle of this with has raved about it to their friends.

So, Grenache is a wine that a lot of people don’t understand, usually because they’ve tried a cheaper one and thought it was too sweet or too different. But if you like Shiraz, then you’ll certainly like this wine and I would urge everyone to try it. The price of $55 might rule a few people out, but if you ever see a bottle, try it and let me know what you think. 94 points.

I’m very fortunate to have a relationship with the team at Spinifex. Over the last year, we’ve started selling the Spinifex wines in the shop and they’ve been a revelation for my customers and for me. And then the reviews started pouring in… Penguin Winery of the Year, Penguin Wine of the Year (for the 06 Esprit), Pete Schell is one of the finalists for Gourmet Traveller Wine Winemaker of the Year… and many more.

Now, how can a $30 wine pick up wine of the year? Well, try it and tell me what you think. The only problem is that it’s not that easy to find in retailers because they mainly sell to restaurants. There are a few select bottle shops that they deal with scattered around the country.

So, the wine. The easiest way to think of it is as a Rhone blend, so it has Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre in there… plus it has some Cinsault and Carignan in there too. You might not know much about those grapes, but you don’t really need to either. The exact blend changes from year to year depending on which grapes actually turned out well, since different grapes flourish in different weather conditions.

So you’re looking for a lovely spicy nose, with an amazing perfumed essence to it. This perfumed nose is something I’m noticing more and more from the newer Barossa producers, in particular Pete Schell, Sparky Marquis and Chris Ringland. Sure, it’s a 2007 and quite young, but a quick run through the decanter will open it up and reveal some of the more beautiful aspects on the nose too. All the lovely cherry and plum flavours shine through and bewitch your senses.

Then on to the palate. It’s not one of those massive, over the top Barossa styles that we’ve been seeing a lot of over the last 5 years or so… it’s a bit more restrained in body but still full flavoured. Quite intense fruit flavours, bits of spice too. The flavour hangs around for awhile too. Put it with a decent steak, or roast lamb with a rosemary gravy… the perfect match. My personal favourite wine from my current favourite producer. 96 points

I’ve always been a fan of Dean Hewitson’s wines. He has made some fantastic Shiraz, including the L’Oiseau, the Mad Hatter and this one. Plus he has a Mourvedre from some very old vines, amongst a few other bits and pieces. All are great value and well worth buying when you see them.

This one is no exception. From a particular vineyard on the eastern side of the Barossa, with gullies either side. Winds sweep up over the vineyard, reducing temperature in an otherwise warm region.

The colour is dark, inky and still has a purple tinge to it 4 years from vintage. You stick your nose in there and it’s unmistakably Shiraz, with that lovely peppery, spicy nose. Hints of plum and darker fruits going on too, but it’s mostly pepper and spice. Then you take a sip. It’s surprisingly rich for its $25ish price point. Slightly sour plum flavours, dark cherries… then you swallow and you get a whole whack of sweet raspberry on the finish. The alcohol is right up there, 15%, but this certainly doesn’t taste hot at all. The tannins are also extremely well integrated and the oak, also while present, doesn’t cloud the beautiful fruit that shines through this wine.

Great value and well worth picking up, I’m glad I bought this one tonight, just what I needed after a difficult week! 92 points

You know, if I could make wine anywhere in Australia, I’d definitely choose the Barossa. I try to get there as often as I can to check out wines from my favourite region… and yet I’d never heard of these guys until a mate gave me a bottle to try. This wine comes in at around $20 a bottle.

From what I can tell, the Kurtz Family Vineyards grow the grapes that go into this wine… but I can’t find any record of a cellar door and I’ve never seen anything about them when I’ve been in the Barossa, so I was interested to try this and see what it’s like.

The first thing that I noticed was that the use of oak was really quite evident on the nose and even more so on the palate. I prefer my oak a little more integrated into the wine, rather than sticking out like dog’s balls, but it’s not unpleasant at all and it’s certainly not like you’ll get splinters in your mouth drinking this. The wine goes into a mixture of old and new American and French oak, so it’s not surprising that the oak is evident, particularly with the use of American oak, which results in a strong vanilla flavour.

Don’t get me wrong, the wine is certainly drinkable. The nose exhibits that sweet oak and fruit on the nose, while the palate is dense with an almost buttery aftertaste. The tannins could also be better integrated into the wine, as they dry out the mouth after swallowing (or spitting, whatever turns you on)… and I think that the wine will fall apart before the tannins become a bit more tolerable.

So look, I have my gripes about the wine, with the oak and tannins being a bit too obvious for my liking. There are certainly worse wines for $20, but I can’t see myself ordering this one again when there are also many better choices. Having said that, I’d love to look at another vintage of this because I think they have more to offer. 84 points

(Originally written February 2007)

In this case, I’m going to write about the winery, rather than an individual wine, because they’re all outstanding.

When a number of the leading wine writers in Australia were asked which winemakers to keep an eye on over the next few years, most of them mentioned Troy Kalleske. The Kalleske family have been growing grapes for five generations, but it took Troy, the sixth generation to be involved in the family business to actually set up a winery and start making wine under the Kalleske label. With all of that grape growing experience, it’s not surprising that they are working with premium grapes and making spectacular wine.

My favourite are these three reds, but they also make one other red in very very limited supply and a quirky white blend also available, not to mention a dessert wine.

Clarry’s Red Blend - $22

80% grenache, 20% shiraz, this wine is full bodied with a lot of fruit sweetness from the grenache. A high alcohol number which will go with some richer dishes. Osso bucco anyone?

Old Vine Grenache - $45

Another high octane number, 15.5%. Don’t take it out to dinner if you plan on driving home! The old vines mean low yielding fruit, more complex and structured flavours and a certain “wow” factor. If you’ve never tried grenache, or have only tried the quite sweet grenache styles of some producers, then this is worth a go to see just what everyone is raving about.

Greenock Shiraz - $45

Named after the nearby village. Sitting at 15.0%, it’s a big rich juicy number, with lashings of American and French oak. It’s one of those numbers that needs cellaring, but you can drink it now if you like. All of the grapes are sourced from a single vineyard, with cuttings dating back to the 1800’s. Buy it,thank me later.

All are wines from one of the most exciting prospects in the Australian wine industry.